The Island Child

This book made me feel numb after reading it. It touched on a NUMBER of upsetting themes like miscarriage, suicide, child death, rape, alcoholism, cyclical trauma, and so much more that I was really not expecting, though I could have if I'd properly read the reviews on the back of the book. Regardless, it started off with the recollection of a child's broken relationship with a mother who hates her and makes her childhood miserable. Throughout the book, you become intimate with the plight and sacrifice of mothers and feel great sympathy for them. You follow the story of the protagonist through a recollection of her past from the time of her birth as the perspective switches to the present, where she is trying to find her missing child. You also witness generational trauma at play, which can be really sensitive. It is bleak the entire time- there is really no light. This book is dismal, but it really made me appreciate all that my mother has sacrificed for me and inspired me to treat her with more tenderness. Overall, it was a high quality book, but I did not give it 5 stars because it made my heart ache.